Self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules in the presence of immiscible solvents (oil/water) leads to the formation of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) with the length scale in the range of 2-50 nm, also called mesophases. Usually, LLC structures are polycrystalline and the value of their elastic modulus depends on the average orientation of their constituent’s single crystals. We developed a model to predict the elastic modulus and yielding of LLCs from their characteristic length and intermicellar interactions. Shear modulus of LLCs depends on the inverse of intermicellar distance with a power-law model. If monomers are included in the oil or water phase of LLCs, they can be used as template to synthesize nanostructured polymers. The key point in this soft templating method is to preserve the structure upon polymerization. We used chemorheology to study the kinetics of polymerization in soft nanoconfined structure of LLCs. In addition, we produced ultrafiltration (UF) and ion-gel membranes from the polymerized LLCs. Produced membranes have domain sizes in the range of 3-15 nm and outperform conventional membranes. The proposed templating method provides flexibility in terms of both the final membrane chemistry and domain size. Therefore, it can be tailored to produce membranes for a wide range of applications in water treatment and electrochemical processes.